The Frost Has Melted
by masaaki
Summary: Sort of AU. Oneshot.


A/N: ALOT of OOCness.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

On my bedside table, a small and blue velvet box quietly sat. I silently turned my head and gazed at it for a long time before reaching over to it from where I was lying on my bed. For once, I did away with the fake smile which almost always donned my face.

As my fingers slid over the smooth cover of the box, I remembered her. She was one of the few who managed to melt the ice around my heart. She was the one who saw through my seemingly flawless façade. And she was the one who made me see that it was not a weakness to have feelings. She gave back to me what was stolen so long ago by the organization, Root.

I began slowly lifting the lid and remembered the time we first met. We were about ten then.

_I was, as usual, sitting on the swings and painting the cherry blossom trees which were filled with flowers swaying gently in the breeze. With that smile upon my lips, as usual, when I heard a sobbing in the bushes. I found it annoying and was quite irritated with the incessant amount of sniffling produced. Ignoring it as best I could, I finally gave up when it started getting louder. Stomping to the bushes and roughly parting them, and raised my eyebrow at the sight n front of me. A girl with pink hair was hunched over a dead bird and her big glassy eyes still streaming with tears were red and puffy. However what struck me most was her outrageously pink hair. PINK?! _

'_Who the hell has pink hair?!' I asked myself._

Anyway, back to the point.

_I stared at her like she was a freak or something but something about this girl irked me. She immediately stopped crying when our eyes met. _

'_She looks to be around the same age as me.' _

"_Why are you smiling?" the girl suddenly spoke, breaking me out of my thoughts._

"_Hmm?"_

"_Why are you smiling when something has died?" she asked softly._

_I continued smiling and answered,_

"_It is how things work, you move on after that."_

"_But you aren't really smiling are you?"_

"_I…"_

_For once, I was left speechless. That routine smile left my face as I felt someone holding my hand. I turned and saw that the girl was smiling at me. All trace of her sadness gone even though there were trails of dried tears staining her face. _

"_Your drawings are pretty!"_

_Looking down, I realized that I hadn't kept my paints and brushes. The canvas stood out from the dirt, colours of pink, white and orange hues dancing upon it like they were alive._

"_What is it called?" she asked curiously, that smile never leaving her lips._

"_I… Don't know." I honestly replied her._

"_Can I name it then?" Hope was evident in her green orbs._

_Before I had a chance to speak, she named it. And I thought it was a beautiful name._

"_The frost has melted." and she closed her eyes and smiled contentedly._

_Quietly I packed my things with her help and we began the walk back to her home in comfortable silence._

That was how I met that annoying, **pink** haired girl. A genuine smile graced my features as I reminisced.

* * *

I opened the box fully. And in it lay a snowflake shaped necklace pendant.

_We were sixteen. It was summer and a particularly hot one._

"_Must be global warming kicking in. All those pollutants tainting our pure air. -.-" I thought displeasingly, frowning._

_We were older and both of us had become shinobi. Although I was of a higher rank, we still remained close. And despite all the missions I was sent on, time was always found to have a quick bite or coffee._

_And so we were at the park talking when an ice cream van drove past. Skipping to the van in a very child-like manner, she bought 2 cones and was on her way back to the bench where I was sitting when suddenly a little boy crashed into her while running. This caused the ice cream to fall splat on to the floor._

"_Shanaro!" Inner Sakura came out._

"_Uhh. It's just a kid, hag." I said while sweat dropping._

"_Shanaro! WHAT DID YOU CALL ME SAI!" craning her head around I saw fire blazing in her eyes._

'_Uh-oh! RUN!' _

_She ended up chasing me round and round and round the whole park. When we finally became too tired, we stopped and found ourselves back where we started. She was still bending over trying to catch her breath when I looked up and started laughing._

_She looked up at me with curious eyes and looked over to what I was laughing at. Soon she started laughing hysterically as well. The little boy who knocked her ice cream down was trying to lump what remained of the frosty treat together and stuff it back into the cone. Obviously, it was not working and he ended up making an even bigger mess on himself. _

_At last we stopped rolling around on the floor and got up. She took out her handkerchief and cleaned the boy off as best as she could and sent him home saying that everything was okay. He apologized profusely but she just laughed it off. _

I thought that I was finally beginning to understand those emotions she was always rambling on about, trying to make me understand what they were.

* * *

The evening sun had begun to set. The snowflake caught the sunrays and glinted. The diamond studs on each of the 5 arms of the snowflake were equally spaced apart and pointed in different directions. They reminded me of her oraganised ways and how she hated messy rooms and dirt.

_That had been the first time she entered my apartment and already she was disgusted with it. She instantly started freaking out and screamed at me to clean it all up but I just looked at her innocently and smiled that smile. After much debate within herself, she marched out of my home only to storm back minutes later and start cleaning my entire house. About half a day later, she collapsed on to my couch and without saying anything, she fell asleep. I sweat dropped and thought to myself._

'_No one asked her to do all that. Guess it's a hags' way of doing things. Oh wells." And fell asleep as well._

As I felt along the ridges of the snowflake, something wet slid down my cheeks.

"_What is this? These droplets of water coming out of my eyes?" I asked her._

"_They're tears, Sai. Your body makes them when you feel immense hurt, pain or joy." She replied gently before her eyes closed._

_We had been on a regular mission to deliver a scroll to the Water Country's feudal lord. However, we were ambushed and the enemy ninja out numbered our own. After much fighting and bloodshed, the Konoha shinobi emerged victorious although not without casualties of our own. And Sakura was one of them. Bodies were strewn across the forest floor and weapons were embedded in various places. Crimson ink was everywhere as I cradled her head in my lap. A gaping wound was in her stomach where the enemy had managed to evade her sense and plunge a katana right through her when she was distracted for a split second. Her eyes were dull and out of focus._

_I applied what little I new of medical jutsu and tried to heal her, but soon fainted from exhaustion. Just when the black clouds looming overhead decided to unleash their wrath upon us as we lay, unconscious on the blood soaked battlefield. _

_When I awoke, I could hear the soft beeping of machines as the smell of anesthetic filled my nostrils. Although conscious, my eyes remained closed as I pieced together what little I could remember of how I got to where I assumed was the hospital. _

'_Mission. Feudal lord. Scroll. Ambush. Blood. Sakura!'_

_I got up suddenly from the bed and regretted it right away as a searing pain ran through my left shoulder. Checking it, I realized that bandages had covered a huge slash which I had not noticed earlier. Looking frantically around, I searched for any signs of pink. Eventually, my eyes settled on the bed beside me. Sakura lay there, still unconscious._

_Just then, the Godaime walked into the room._

"_Ah, I see that you're awake, Sai. I hope you are well enough to tell me what happened."_

"_Hn. Jounin class. Around twenty of them." And quickly, I told her about the ambush and the enemy ninja._

_After finishing my story, I glanced back at Sakura._

"_She suffered great blood loss due to that wound in her stomach. But she'll be okay. She should wake up in a day or two."_

_I said nothing and turned to look at the Godaime with that fake smile plastered on my face. And she walked out of the room._

* * *

The water droplets fell onto the pendant, wetting it.

It had already been a few weeks. And Sakura still had not stirred, much less awoken. As often as I could, I would pass by the Yamanaka flower shop and stop to buy flowers for Sakura and Ino would worriedly ask if Sakura had woken. But she knew the answer just by looking at my face. I had begun to show a little emotion.

Weeks turned into months. Tsunade did not understand why Sakura was still in a coma. She had tried everything from potions to new jutsus. But nothing could wake Sakura. Naruto only found out about Sakura's current state after returning from a 9 month mission with Kakashi. And both sensei and student almost went insane with worry. They too visited her often. Tsunade would not show it. But inside she was frustrated with herself. She could not bear to see Sakura in such a state.

* * *

Winter had passed and everyone was anticipating the arrival of Spring as the recent winter was colder than usual. I had the suspicion that it had something to do with Sakura's state. I put the pendant back into the velvet box and placed it back on the table.

Today was like any other day. I prepared to visit Sakura again. Trudging through the melting snow the first signs of spring appeared. New shoots were coming out of the ground. And the sun's warmth was warming the earth. As usual, I bought the last of the winter flowers and proceeded to the Konoha Hospital.

Sliding open the door to her room silently, I immediately dropped the flowers and they fell to the floor in a soft 'thud' sound. My eyes widened and I wanted to speak but no sound came out of my mouth.

And the words that left her lips softly then, would be forever burned into my memories.

"The frost has melted."

* * *

Phew. Finally. R&R please! I'll give you candies AND a choco bar. v 


End file.
